OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[hentzau]

Meant to post this a while ago, but I met up with Hepcat and Zarathud and Seppe and a few other brave souls for some gaming this past Saturday. I got there late while they were already well into their gaming. Watched Seppe and Zarathud and another Octocon regular play some Skull and Roses (think I'll need to pick this one up some day) while Hepcat played some Quarriors.

After Skull and Roses was over, I broke out Eight Minute Empires and we got a game of that in. While it doesn't play in eight minutes, I don't think it took us much more than about 20 minutes to play. It's a fun little area control/resource gathering game, the rules are incredibly simple. On your turn, you have to take a card. The leftmost card in play is free, and the others cost you money (which is very limited, and can never be regained. If you spend too much in the early game, you may run out of money and have to pull the free card for your last few turns.) The card will have a resource and an action on it. You collect sets of resources for victory points at the end of the game, some resources are rarer and will grant more VPs than others. You move your armies around a very small map, controlling territories by presence. The cards will have actions that allow you to move armies, build cities, move armies across the water, add more armies to the starting space or a remote city, and (rarely) remove an opposing army. Control is given to the side with the most armies in a territory, and control of a continent is given to the side that controls the most territories. Game ends after a certain number of cards are drawn by each player (in the case of 3 players, 11 cards). VPs are rewarded by sets collected and control of continents and territories. The game play seems very tight...the three of us were all within 2 points of each other. The game plays up to 5 people, and is a great little lunchtime/time filler game.

Then, against all odds, I convinced Hepcat to try Railways of the World. Hep has had some bad train game experiences, and I wanted to convince him that there are good train games in the world. We played a 5 player game, with me being the only experienced player. As a personal handicap to myself, I decided to try and play the game without taking out any bonds. This is a both a good thing and a bad thing, in that you're always earning money without paying dividends back out, and you have no negative VPs at the end. On the bad side, you get off to a slow start, because you have to have a Land Grant card in play before you can start building, and you have to make sure your first route is going to net you at least a couple of goods deliveries so you can start to generate cash with limited rail lines. For me, it worked out fabulously this game. I was well behind in VPs but my slow but steady growth helped me out in getting a great run of 5 link deliveries between New York and Chicago (I completed that line, and got the big bonus, and someone completed the western link and kept dumping red goods into Chicago, for me to keep dumping them into New York.)

End game really wasn't very close...I think Zarathud was second behind me by about 8-10 VPs, and Hepcat was right with him. The worst was poor Tom. he took out like 3 bonds in the first turn and started to build this long meandering track down from Chicago to St. Louis. We pointed out that he could get there much cheaper, but he was insistent. Then a couple of rounds later, asked me to clarify his Railway Baron card. He thought that the Railway Baron that had the train with the most consecutive links was a good one to grab, but didn't catch that a link wasn't a section of track, but a section of track between towns, and that was why he built this stupid long track down to St. Louis. We all had a good laugh, and offered to try and rewind his turns, but he said no, play on! He was so far in the hole at this point that every turn he had to take out a new bond to be able to meet his dividend obligations. By the time the game ended, I think he had 28 bonds out. He had about 2 turns where he didn't need to take out a bond.

I think everyone enjoyed the game, even Hepcat. Either that, or the beers really had him in a good mood.

[hepcat]

I enjoyed it. I have had some less than fun experiences with train games in the past, but Railways was much more enjoyable than I expected.

Before you showed up, I was able to get in a full, 5 player game of Pax Porfiriana. Folks are probably getting sick of it by now, the number of times I suggest it. But I'm just obsessed with it right now. I haven't been this impressed with a game's mechanics since 51st State/New Era.

[MythicalMino]

I second the suggestion to get The Wizard's Tower for Castle Panic. Awesome little game when we pull it out to play.

I am in the process of trying to put together an all-day gaming session for Twilight Imperium 3rd on June 29. I am hoping I can pull the group meet together.

[baelthazar]

Mino, tomorrow I plan to play TI:3rd. Very excited!

[The Rocketman]

It's been a while since I played TI 3, but I was never really satisfied with the Political Strategy (I only have the base game).
There's a nifty variant out there on the 'Geek which I'm definitely going to try out next time I get to play this awesome game. Basically, it doesn't add any extra rules, it just slims the political deck, so that only the strong and powerful cards remain. That way it'll always be an exciting option.

Linky: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/674489/ ... aff/page/1" target="_blank

If any of you try it out, please share your thoughts afterwards! Much obliged.

[baelthazar]

The second expansion adds a much more complex political strategy card and several new mechanics (you draw political agenda cards and play them as "initiatives," giving players more control over what issues pop up). There are also ambassadors. But it takes us so long to play the game that I can't imagine adding more complexity and length!

[baelthazar]

I was thinking about adding Distant Suns, however. But that is likely too random to appeal to my group.

[Blackhawk]

Castle Panic has really impressed me. I've only played three games, and the players won all three, but every time it was down to the wire. Every time we were at a point where we were convinced we were going to lose, and every time we pulled it back in the last few minutes.

I don't recall if you have it or not, but if you like Castle Panic get the Wizard Tower expansion. I think it's one of my favorite game expansions. You'll probably find you win fewer games, and those you do will be hard-fought.

It is on the list, but I'm waiting a while. Castle Panic is still a new game for us. I plan to wait until the base game starts to feel a bit stale, then add in the expansion the breathe life back into it.

[EzeKieL]

Can anyone suggest some small card/box games for two players?

I'm looking for some easy portable games.

Some of those that I already have:

*Zombie Dice
*Machiavelli
*Love Letter
*Air King

[Daveman]

Hive
All Creatures Big and Small

[baelthazar]

Catan: The Card Game.

[Boudreaux]

Check out the options from the aptly named Small Box Games. Omen, Hemloch, and Tooth & Nail are all very good, interesting 2-player games.

[hepcat]

+1 to the SBG suggestion. Great game maker. Just found out they're reworking and rereleasing tooth and nail.

Anyway, played a harrowing game of Dawn of the Zeds this afternoon. The stories you get from playing this gem of a game are always memorable. If you're looking for a great solo board game experience, this is one of the top 5 in my opinion.

[MythicalMino]

Bael, how did your game of TI3 go (I am thinking you have had it by now, right?)?

[LordMortis]

Can anyone suggest some small card/box games for two players?

I'm looking for some easy portable games.

Some of those that I already have:

*Zombie Dice
*Machiavelli
*Love Letter
*Air King

How far back do you want to go? If you go back a decade KOSMOS had a bunch of small box two player games.

Lost Cities was my introduction and I loved enough to get a lot more.

http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Kosm ... yer_series" target="_blank

I've played 12 games from the series and enjoyed all but two of them.

Didn't care for Kahuna and I either Caesar and Cleopatra or Zeus and Athena. I forget which. It's been a long time.

[RMC]

+1 to the SBG suggestion. Great game maker. Just found out they're reworking and rereleasing tooth and nail.

Anyway, played a harrowing game of Dawn of the Zeds this afternoon. The stories you get from playing this gem of a game are always memorable. If you're looking for a great solo board game experience, this is one of the top 5 in my opinion.

Didn't tooth and nail just come out? Wasn't that one that I played with you at Octocon?

You had a few of those card games, and they were all fun. I tried to forget about them, so I would not rush out and buy everything.

My games expanded by at least 4 titles after the Octocon I attended..

[hepcat]

Didn't tooth and nail just come out? Wasn't that one that I played with you at Octocon?

You had a few of those card games, and they were all fun. I tried to forget about them, so I would not rush out and buy everything.

Yeah, back in October of last year. I guess John at SBG took a look at the critiques on BGG and then noticed that sales weren't nearly as strong for T&N as they were for his other games, so decided to rework it a bit. He's noted that he'll be offering Print and Play "patches" for those who bought the initial run, so I'm hoping it's simply a rules and player aid change and not one for the cards themselves...or at least not something that can't be easily made note of in the changes.

[RMC]

Didn't tooth and nail just come out? Wasn't that one that I played with you at Octocon?

You had a few of those card games, and they were all fun. I tried to forget about them, so I would not rush out and buy everything.

Yeah, back in October of last year. I guess John at SBG took a look at the critiques on BGG and then noticed that sales weren't nearly as strong for T&N as they were for his other games, so decided to rework it a bit. He's noted that he'll be offering Print and Play "patches" for those who bought the initial run, so I'm hoping it's simply a rules and player aid change and not one for the cards themselves...or at least not something that can't be easily made note of in the changes.

I recall it being a fun quick game. I wonder what the issues were for most people. I'll have to go over to BGG and take a look. As I have this one on my to buy one day list.

[Smoove_B]

Played a few rounds of MERCS to try and get the basic rules down. While we were slow, the rules are actually rather streamlined and the game play is pretty fast. Our biggest mistake is that we didn't have enough obstructions on the map - namely obstructions that completely eliminate line of sight. We had plenty of half walls and sandbags, but without being able to block line of sight the faction I was playing (KemVar) was able to pretty much hang out and take advantage of active camouflage skills making it harder to hit me from a distance. When you're only working off a D10, small adjustments because of something like LOS or elevation makes a big difference.

My buddy was mortified that only 2 of his 6 soldiers were painted, so he wouldn't let me take pictures. But I did manage to sneak two.



In this first one, my Assault Leader (pictured with glowing blue sword) failed an armor check after being shot. This meant he was immobile and defenseless. There's a grease monkey moving in behind him to repair, but that took me another two rounds. Up top, my Assassin made a successful charge attack against his Assault leader, but his special power is to negate a successful attack once per game. Rather than take two wounds, he opted to stop me from hitting him. His medic (the unpainted white figure) was sitting in the window and getting ready to attack my defenseless Assault leader.



My Assassin and his Assault leader rolled the same initiative and we both had the same reaction time -- so our moves happened simultaneously. He thought I was coming over the wall for another stab with my laser knife, but instead I ran down to his Medic and delivered another two wounds, killing him before he had a chance to fire on my Assault Leader. My buddy was not amused.

This was my first introduction to true "war gaming" and I found it to be enjoyable. We're going to add the advanced rules in next (suppression, overwatch, etc...) but more than anything we need higher obstacles to make it a bit more fair.

[hepcat]

I recall it being a fun quick game. I wonder what the issues were for most people. I'll have to go over to BGG and take a look. As I have this one on my to buy one day list.

I liked the four player version of the game MUCH better than the two player as it has some deck building included. I think what John's doing is bringing that mechanic into the two player version...which I'm all for!

But I would hold off purchasing it until the "2.0 version" comes out in the near future.

[coopasonic]

My 7 yr old and I played about 4 turns of X-Wing Miniatures over the weekend with just the base game. I definitely see it having some promise but he's going to need some training before he can really enjoy it.

We also played vanilla Ticket to Ride. A couple months back my son beat me at Nordic Countries, so I was hopeful here. Unfortunately he jsut collected all the engines he could and I beat him 128-24.

[EzeKieL]

Thanks for all the tips!

[baelthazar]

Bael, how did your game of TI3 go (I am thinking you have had it by now, right?)?

Woah, was it a slugfest. It took around 9 hours to play, as usual. We played with the alternative Tech card (allows you one free tech and buy a tech for 8 resources with primary and the secondary is buy a tech for 6 resources). Our objectives happened to have a lot of tech in them as well - have 5 techs, have all 4 colors of tech, have 3 of the same color tech (all 1 point each). Our Jol-Nar player managed to jump ahead early, but he was not aggressive enough to keep that ball rolling. I was the Yssaril Tribes (who I think are a very good race due to their starting XRD transporters and 2 carriers) and my neighbors were the Ghosts of Creuss (the wormhole guys) and the Terrans. The wormholes were very far away from the wormhole guy, so his power was never used during the whole game (I tried to tell him he needed to buy that racial tech to create new wormholes, but he ignored it). The Terrans were my main competition (and that player is the second most aggressive player, I am the most aggressive player). My dad, on the far end away from me, played the Yin Brotherhood and had a poor map start and was fairly hemmed in by the Jol-Nar, so his game was not so dynamic.

I grabbed Mecatol Rex early on, second turn, given my XRD technology. That allowed me to get a three points using the updated Imperial card (we play the Age of Empires variant in the original manual, where all of the objectives are showing at the start). I made a huge mistake as I had a preliminary objective to get a planet bordering another player's home world - something I could have done on the first turn had I grabbed Warfare. Still, I managed to do that and get the point. My Secret Objective was to have 4 planets of the same tech color - but I misread it and thought it said "have four of the same tech color discounts from planets" - so I overextended myself to be able to seize a two planets of the Jol Nar through the wormhole to get a planet with 2 greens and another planet with 1 green. So I had a 4 discount, but only 3 planets with green discounts - so I messed up my objective and could not over get it. Still, I managed to rebuild my forces and the Jol Nar was completely ineffective in getting me off that 2 green planet, which was next to their homeworld. The Terrans were neck and neck with me for points.

The game lasted 6 rounds and then we hit the "Imperium" card that ends the game by points. The Terran and I were tied, but I won by having more objectives completed (the first tie-breaker).

The only hitch was that the Terran and the Ghosts players got into a "philosophical" argument about if one should take moves that did not benefit oneself but that basically "choose" a winner in the case that two player were tied. I call this "spoiling," where the losing player/s basically just choose a winner, rather than let the leads duke it out legitimately. Given the way TI goes, every player had the chance to gain multiple points in the last few rounds, so doing something destructive of another person solely to make them lose is less effective than actually coming up with a strategy to help yourself win. But the Ghost player did not see it this way. Anyway, normal stuff for an intense game.

Yesterday we played a few adventures of Descent: 2nd Edition. Man, that game is so brutal, so quickly that the player characters tend to get discouraged. I told them "expect to get knocked out early and then try to recover from there" but they had assumed that I "won" from the second turn. It did not turn out that way, we ended in a tie. Still, players need to be ready for the sheer brutality of the Overlord's monsters and cards.

[Jow]

9 hours? good lord. it'd have to be a pretty spectacularly divine game to keep me interested that long.

[baelthazar]

9 hours? good lord. it'd have to be a pretty spectacularly divine game to keep me interested that long.

Well, we did take some time to eat and snack. But, yes, Twilight Imperium is a very long game. Don't try playing Here I Stand, either...

[MythicalMino]

sounds like a good session.

I am in the process of reprocessing the rules. I have a 4 player game set up on the kitchen table, going to try to relearn the game. It has been quite some time since I last had that game out. I am looking at possibly a 4 player game sometime in the last week of June.

[baelthazar]

sounds like a good session.

I am in the process of reprocessing the rules. I have a 4 player game set up on the kitchen table, going to try to relearn the game. It has been quite some time since I last had that game out. I am looking at possibly a 4 player game sometime in the last week of June.

I'm always surprised, when playing, how simple TI's rules are. But when you need to get prepared, setup the game, or find out who won, the rulebook turns into an atrocious reference tome. I feel like they could have laid out the rulebook in a simpler manner. I mean, really, all you do on your turn is either decide to activate your strategy card or to activate a system for building and moving. What irritates me are the strange rules for Transfer actions (which we rarely use) and the bizarre rules for retreats in battle. Also, there needs to be a greater number of reference items - things that remind you about space dock build capacity, PDS limits, etc.

We never use the optional stuff, other than some of the optional strategy cards, the racial techs, the mechanized infantry, and flagships. All that crazy stuff about Distant Worlds, space mines, mercenaries, leaders, and representatives seems like it would add even more time and minutia to the game.

[RMC]

One reason I love Eclipse is because at it's heart it is TI. It is epic, has the different races, technology, a cool ship mechanic.

But you can play it in 1/2 the time and know who won pretty easily.

I still really love TI, but it has taken a hit with my gaming group, as they can set-up and start a game of Eclipse faster than we can even get everything out for TI.

The expansion for Eclipse also added more players, and some very cool mechanics that just make the game flow, no major changes to the rules, and even the new tech is not too out of balance or anything.

[SpaceLord]

There’s a group here in Colorado that plays TI3 every couple of months. Some amusing facts about the group:

They have over 50 house rules.
They have rankings for every player, including preferred colors and races.
They once called a game for time at 5AM, having played 4 TURNS in 12 hours.
They set up the board via email, weeks in advance so they can actually start at the correct time.

Those people are crazy.

[LordMortis]

They set up the board via email, weeks in advance so they can actually start at the correct time.

That's a great idea for PITA to set up games.

[Zarathud]

Eclipse benefits from having obvious VP paths rather than variable objectives, its battle reward VP bag which discourages turtling and a fixed game length.

[RMC]

Eclipse benefits from having obvious VP paths rather than variable objectives, its battle reward VP bag which discourages turtling and a fixed game length.

This from the person who addicted me to the game, and forced me to purchase the base game and expansion, and the cool little trays.

Well maybe forced is a bit on the strong side, but he's a game pusher.

[baelthazar]

Eclipse benefits from having obvious VP paths rather than variable objectives, its battle reward VP bag which discourages turtling and a fixed game length.

Something about Eclipse just does not synch with me. I like the iPad version fairly well, but I think it is the "mathematical" aspect of trying to balance support/expansion costs with income. What that leads to is the person who can do the math best will certainly have the leader advantage - something that, IMHO seems hard to overcome in Eclipse. I guess it just has to do with my mind not wanting to expand faster than I can handle, then abandon systems I can't afford.

But, in retrospect, my gaming group would probably like Eclipse as much or more than TI. Two of the five are not at all into conflict and Eclipse has good conflict that makes more sense than TI's land-grabs. Most of the game of Eclipse is building up the perfect economic machinery to achieve a certain goal. It is perfectly acceptable to not have conflict for a few turns.

If I had only had 4 players, I would have pulled out Clash of Cultures instead of TI. That would be the biggest hit with my group.

One other thing, I think my experience with TI is skewed because we so often have 5 players rather than the more optimal 4 or 6 (with 4 being the sweet spot, IMHO).

[EzeKieL]

Just in case anyone was wondering...

Merchant of Venus kicks ass ^^.

Really love this game and I'm always happy when it hits the table.

Seasons still has the majority of my love though ;_;

[baelthazar]

Just in case anyone was wondering...

Merchant of Venus kicks ass ^^.

Really love this game and I'm always happy when it hits the table.

Seasons still has the majority of my love though ;_;

Yeah, I'm actually kicking myself that I didn't play MoV instead of TI. I love TI, but I sit around craving another MoV play!

[baelthazar]

Just FYI, but we got word that - barring any unforeseen bizarreness - The Ogre Designer's Edition will be released in mid-October.

[hepcat]

Good luck with that.

[Zarathud]

So I will have a few more months to find room for Ogre. Or ask hepcat to share custody.

[hepcat]

My boardgame collection has already spilled onto my dining room floor and taken over the coat closet near my front door. I'm hoping to unload some of the ones I don't play at Origins next week in order to make room.

[RMC]

I'll PM my address. I have plenty of room, and will only charge you a minimal fee for storage.